Scent of Things to Come
by Elaine of Shalott
Summary: Revised: This is a crossover between Earth Final Conflict's second season and the Sentinel post 'The Sentinel by Blair Sandburg'
1. Prologue and Chapter 1

A Scent of Things to Come: Prologue and Chapter 1 I have revised the beginning of this story. The second chapter should follow within a week or two. 

This story is set late in Season 2 of Earth Final Conflict and after the final episode of the   
Sentinel. . 

Notes on u>The Sentinel/u> and Timing: I'm assuming that Blair did become a   
Detective after [i]The Sentinel by Blair Sandburg[/i] with perhaps a few bumps in the   
road but no major disasters. After much thought about the multitude of short comments   
at various times on u>Earth Final Conflict/u> I am dating the Taelons arrival between   
January and February 2005. I believe that it was established that Thompson was already   
President when they came. Second Season runs from May 2008 (a screen in [i]A Stitch   
in Time[/i] was dated the first week of June 4 A.C.) to Wednesday November 5 2008 (the   
day after the Presidential Election for that year)   
RE: u>The Sentinel/u> I am assuming that the improved medical technology   
introduced by the Taelons will allow these characters to be as physically fit as they were   
just under a decade before. 

Please note I have no idea if the Universidad de Salamanca really offers a doctoral   
program for Cultural Anthropology. I also decided to use the real location of the Guaica   
tribe rather than the one in Lili's sarcastic comment to Sandoval if anyone really cares. 

Also on the terms Resistance and Liberation. I have noticed that many groups seem to be   
called Resistance but only the official main group seems to be called the Liberation. So I   
use the term Liberation only to refer to the group Marquette, Boone and Liam belong to   
and Resistance to refer to anyone who actively opposes the Taelons. All Liberation   
members are in the Resistance but not all Resistance members are Liberation. I don't   
know if any of this is official but it helps me keep track of who I'm talking about.   


**_A Scent of Things to Come_**

_Prologue_

Slowly, she inched closer to two men speaking in the shadows. "I've been promoted.   
Another couple of weeks in this cell and I should be trusted to carry messages to other   
cells. After that it should only be a matter of time before I can identify the new leader of   
the Liberation." 

"Good, I've received word that there is an operation in progress to deal with Doors. With   
your information we will be able to strike. In one day the Liberation will lose all its   
leadership. Old and New. Cut off the head and the snake dies." 

Slipping between the shadows she moved carefully closer trying to get a clear look at   
their faces. Suddenly she froze as an object was pressed between her shoulder blades.   


"Jim, that Jags game was great, when…" The longhaired man broke off suddenly. His   
taller companion had stopped walking, his head tilted to one side. The first man stepped   
closer to his friend placing a hand on his arm. "What do you hear man?" 

"Someone is calling someone Resistance scum. It sounds like a fight, this way." 

The two men moved swiftly but carefully through the maze of alleyways. Looking   
around a corner they saw three men attacking a fourth person who was already subdued.   
One of the three looked up and spotted them. "Someone's coming let's get out of here!"   
he said to his companions. They took off. 

Jim pulled his weapon and shouted "FREEZE, CASCADE PD" but the men disappeared   
behind a corner. He started to follow. 

Just then a confused voice said "Enquiri?" Surprise pulled Jim up short. He looked   
down at the figure on the ground that his friend had bent over. He saw a woman   
struggling to rise from her position on the ground. For a moment brown eyes met blue.   
Then the woman on the ground succumbed to her injuries and collapsed.   


_Chapter 1_

_Part 1_

Cascade General Hospital Emergency Room 

The long-haired man stood at the desk in the busy emergency room displaying his ID to   
the woman at the computer. "I'm Detective Blair Sandburg, Major Crimes. Have you   
identified the woman we brought in yet, and do you know her status." 

"She's suffering from some internal bleeding, a number of bruises,and a concussion." the   
desk clerk answered looking at her screen. "She should be out of the OR soon and will   
have to spend several hours in recovery. With the drugs she's on she won't be coherent   
enough to answer questions until the afternoon. We haven't had time to search for her ID   
but since she is the victim of a crime I can give you her DNA and Brainwave patterns so   
you can search the system for her records yourself. 

"Thank you" Blair turned and took out his global rapidly transmitting the information to   
the Major Crimes computers initiating a search.. As he did so he walked towards Jim   
who was sitting in one of the many chairs lining the room. He sat down next to his   
partner and said, "I assume you were listening." 

"Yeah. How long will the search take, Chief?" 

"A few hours at least. We can head back to the loft for a few hours rest. We need to get   
to the bottom of this quick though. If she recognizes you as Enquiri then she probably   
knows that you're a Sentinel. There couldn't be a worse time for this to come out with all   
the rumors of Taelons experimenting on humans." 

Jim sighed. "Later, Chief, I can't deal with this at three in the morning." 

As the two friends departed from the hospital they were unaware of the dreams passing   
through the mind of the object of their interest. 

Part 2 

_Two young girls ran through the woods.___

_"Kayla wait up" called the younger.___

_"You're too slow Maiya at this rate we'll never get there," she replied.___

_"What are you two doing out here?" asked a man's voice from behind them.___

_The girls spun to see two men approaching them.___

_"Hadi, Watchman, we…we were…just looking for berries," said Kayla hesitantly.___

_"Would you like to answer that question again, with the truth this time?" asked the_   
_Watchman sternly.___

_"Kayla was going to take me to the ridge" Maiya said in a small voice.___

_"You know you're not supposed to go there alone. It's dangerous," replied the one Kayla_   
_had addressed as Watchman.___

_Maiya sighed and turned back taking the hand Hadi held out to her but Kayla stamped_   
_her foot and shrieked "It's not fair! I'm not a baby I can go where I want!" and she turned_   
_to run away.___

_The Watchman took a step forward to catch her and everything shifted.___

_A dark haired boy in his teens departed the tent as a slightly older Maiya entered it._   
_Maiya glanced at him over her shoulder. "Hadi, who is he?" she asked, "I haven't seen_   
_him before."___

_"His name is Jason he has traveled from a distant land to join our tribe. He is my_   
_apprentice and will be your spiritual leader when I am gone."___

_"He will be the Hadi?"___

_"Only if he finds a Watchman to guide along with the tribe." Seeing her puzzled look he_   
_asked "Is there something you don't understand Maiya?"___

_"I know there is something special about the Watchman but all the adults seem to know_   
_what it is so no one ever says."___

_The Hadi chuckled, "I can see how that might be a problem, Maiya. A Watchman's_   
_senses are more powerful than ours. He can see further than you or I can, he can hear_   
_your heartbeat and know if you are lying to him, he can smell the faintest scent, taste the_   
_poison in bad food long before it can harm us, and feel a crack in bone with the lightest_   
_touch. When a tribe has a Watchman to guard it, it will prosper. He can track game_   
_easily and locate attacking tribes long before they reach us. A Watchman needs someone_   
_to guide him, keep him from being overwhelmed. Doing this is what makes the spiritual_   
_leader of the tribe a Hadi as well."___

_Everything shifted once more.___

_Two teenaged girls moved quietly through the forest with the Watchman and the Hadi._   
_Suddenly the Watchman paused silent, listening.___

_"What do you hear Enquiri?" asked the Hadi.___

_"The Cherdahs, their planning an attack, Tal. Maiya, Kayla, head back to camp and warn_   
_everyone we'll stay here to find out their plans."___

_Shift___

_"Maiya, I have to do as the Taelons ask. They have already killed the Watchman and the_   
_Hadi. If I do not agree to serve them the Iberrians will be no more. You and Jason and_   
_Kayla must hold our people together. Prepare them to fight the Taelons. I will buy you_   
_as much time as I can."_

In the hospital room Maiya's eyes snapped open.   


_Part 3_

Cascade PD, Major Crimes Unit, Captain Simon Banks' Office 

"We've identified her as Isabel Martinez. She's a doctoral student of Cultural   
Anthropology at the University of Salamanca. Her dissertation is own how the arrival of   
the Taelons has affected the culture of isolated tribes in the Amazon Basin. She's in an   
exchange program and taking a couple of courses at Rainier this semester. No obvious   
connection to the Chopec, most of her work has been in the Orinoco region, most   
recently with the Guaica, so we can't be sure if she identified Jim as a Sentinel," stated   
Blair. 

"Obviously the two of you need to investigate this until we know about that but just how   
do we justify a simple assault case as falling under the jurisdiction of Major Crimes?"   
asked Captain Banks. 

"We've got two possibilities for that and both are related to the same event. According to   
my information she was taken in for questioning in Washington D.C. by Ronald Sandoval   
on 'Suspicion of Crimes Committed against the Taelons' of the Liberation and ten   
minutes later she was logged through customs at the Caracas Portal. It's like she was in   
two places at once," replied Blair. 

"Or someone else was using her ID," added Jim. 

"The type of hacking involved in changing an individual's identity like that would   
certainly be Major Criminal activity since you would have to access a number of   
different government databases. The other possibility is that if she is Liberation the men   
who attacked her could be Taelon operatives," continued Blair. 

"This seems likely because I thought I heard one of the men call her 'Resistance Scum.'   
Of course she might not have any Liberation connections, the mere possibility would be   
enough for some people. Cascade has been relatively quiet as far as Resistance activity is   
concerned but if she is a member of the Resistance this could be the first battle in a street   
war between these two groups," concluded Jim. 

"When will you question her?" asked Simon. 

"We have a couple of uniforms posted outside her room just in case her attackers track   
her down. They'll let us know when her doctor says she's conscious and coherent." 

_Chirp, Chirp_

Blair opened his global. 

"Isabel Martinez woke up an hour ago, Detective, if you wish to question her about the   
attack you can come by any time." 

*******   
End Chapter 1   



	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 

_Part 1_

_Cascade General (Jim's POV)_

It didn't take Sandburg and I long to reach the hospital. We were both quiet on the way.  We weren't sure what we'd do if she was Resistance. I have never liked the Taelons. A vision shortly after their landing convinced Sandburg and I that they were a threat. I sympathized with the Resistance. The official Liberation seemed fairly safe to me, they were mostly concerned about raising public awareness of the Taelons actions.  However, the events of the last couple of years had proven that many of the fringe groups were quite dangerous to the public. They didn't care if someone else got hurt while they were attacking the Taelons.  No one was starting a street war in my city. 

We went right up to her room to talk to her. The uniform guarding the door let us in. She was sitting up in bed, bruised and bandaged but alert. "Miss Martinez I'm Detective Jim Ellison this is my partner Detective Blair Sandburg we'd like to ask you a few questions about the assault."

"Certainly Detective"

"Could you describe how you were attacked," as she answered the questions I focused my senses on her so I could know if she was telling the truth, over the years my skills had sharpened enough that I could usually even identify a half-truth.

"I was walking down the street, as I passed an alley I heard a noise and stopped. As I turned around I was grabbed from behind and after that everything is rather vague." 

Some of that was true but some of it was a lie but I'll let it pass for now.

"Do you remember anything at all about your attackers?" asked Sandburg.

"I think there were three of them. All men. I don't think I can describe them well." Again a mix of truth and lie.

"Could this have any connection to your arrest by Companion Agents in DC?"

"That was a case of mistaken identity. Major Kincaid came to speak with me on site and he cleared up the matter." That was true enough but I she didn't exactly answer the question now did she.

"So you were never arrested?"

"No, I was in South America the whole time." I could hear her heart rate accelerate. This was a lie. I had no idea how the earlier statement could be true and this one false. I planned to ask a few more questions, but some instinct just took over at that moment and I said it.

"Would you like to answer that question again, with the truth this time?" Her reaction startled me. Her heart rate went through the roof her eyes widened. I know Sandburg could also see her shock. This went far behind being caught in a lie. What is this woman's story?

_Part 2_

_Maiya's POV_

I looked up as the two men who had been the focus of my dreaming last night.  No, I have to keep reminding myself that people are different in this dimension.  They are no more Enquiri and the Hadi, Tal than Sandoval was Jason.  In this "civilized" world it is unlikely one born a Watchman would ever develop his talents.

Enquiri spoke first, "Miss Martinez I'm Detective Jim Ellison, this is my partner Detective Blair Sandburg we'd like to ask you a few questions about the assault."

I let the part of me that was Isabel take the lead as I answered, "Certainly Detective."

"Could you describe how you were attacked?" Enquiri...No Detective Ellison asked.

I could do this, I had already decided how to explain it using a little of the truth and a lot of misdirection.  "I was walking down the street, as I passed an alley I heard a noise and stopped.  As I turned around I was grabbed from behind and after that everything is rather vague."  Believe that I'm just an ordinary victim of a mugging I thought at him.  From his body language I don't think he completely believed me.

"Do you remember anything at all about your attackers?" asked Detective Sandburg.

"I think there were three of them.  All men.  I don't think I can describe them well."  That was partially true.  I had seen the face of the spy and the leader when they attacked, but I don't intend to have the police arrest him before I can expose him to the Liberation.  I still have a duty to protect Liam only my death or his will end that particular obligation.

"Could this have any connection to your arrest by Companion agents in DC?" Very clever detectives.

"That was a case of mistaken identity.  Major Kincaid came to speak with me on site and he cleared up the matter."  I make it sound so simple, one half of me mistaken for the other, the solution our minds merge and a body dies, but life is never simple.  Even with the merge making Maiya dominant, I have all of Isabel's memories.  Sometimes I don't know where she ends and I begin.

"So you were never arrested?"

"No, I was in South America the whole time."  Almost immediately he responded.

"Would you like to answer that question again, with the truth this time?"  I flashed back to the memory I dreamed last night of my tribes Watchman.  The only way he could know with certainty I lied is if he had a Watchman's abilities.  I know my shock showed plain on my face.  Yet, as I met his eyes I could see it.  The experiences might be different but in this case the core of this man was the same as in my dimension.  I looked at his partner and saw the wisdom I once saw in the Hadi's eyes there.

I took a deep breath and a leap of faith.  My accent was clearly audible as I said, "You want the truth, very well Watchman, I will tell you though you may not believe me."

_Part 3_

_Blair's POV_

I was surprised by her response to Jim's challenging statement.  First she displayed extreme shock far beyond what I would expect of someone caught in a lie.  Then she looked each of us in the eye for a moment before taking a deep breath.  When she spoke again her voice was very different. "You want the truth, very well Watchman, I will tell you though you may not believe me."

"Several months ago a radical in the resistance tried to kill and individual who advocated less violent methods the attempt involved sabotage and interdimensional travel.  The result was that this man found himself in another dimension where only a few tribes of humans had escaped being enslaved by the Taelons.  My home." 

"He saved my tribe from complete destruction at the hands of the Taelons.  A debt I tried to repay by returning with him to protect him here.  My arrest by Taelon operatives was simply a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I was working as a waitress in a bar that was a known resistance hang out.  The Taelon's needed victims for an experiment so they walked in and arrested everyone present.  The same man saved my life again, further increasing my debt.  I decided to lay low for a while.

"Unfortunately we did not count on the fact that since I had a double here and only one of us could survive.  Meanwhile we were chased by my husband's double who works for the Taelons in this reality.  Isabel and I merged.  I, Maiya remained dominant although Isabel is within me.  The Taelons are convinced that the dead body that they have on the mothership is Maiya and that Isabel knew nothing of what happened.  To maintain that illusion I had to take up Isabel's lifestyle."

"I can tell you believe this is true." Jim said.  This was mostly for my benefit.  I knew he was using his senses and could detect no lie from her manner.

"But you don't believe it.  Perhaps I should share one other piece of information.  The two of you also had doubles on my world.  Yours" she looked significantly at me with this, "was Tal, the Hadi of our tribe.  He was a spiritual leader who directed both our tribe and you," here she addressed Jim, "Enquiri who was the Watchman who protected our tribe with senses more acute than those of other men.  When I was a child my sister Kayla and I snuck out to go to an area that had been forbidden to us.  When your doubles tracked us through the forest Kayla tried to lie to Enquiri but he listened to her heartbeat and knew the lie.  He asked her what you just asked me a few moments ago, 'Would you like to answer that question again, with the truth this time?'  This made me wonder.  She clearly knew a great deal about Jim's abilities and the nature of our relationship.  Part of me wanted to believe she really was crazy but something told me this was just the most recent in the long line of bizarre situations in which Jim and I always seem to find ourselves.

Part 4 

"Excuse us for a minute."  Jim and Blair moved of and spoke in hushed voices.  "Do you buy any of this Chief?  She has got to be delusional."

"I don't know I've read some articles that would suggest it's possible.  And she accurately described your abilities and our relationship without using the terms Sentinel and Guide, or Shaman for that matter.  If she'd learned about your abilities here she would most likely have used one of them.  It's probably still possible to track down news footage from the events leading up to my press conference and Sentinel was the term used there.  Do your senses tell you she is delusional or is it just that her story is so odd?"

"Her story." Jim sighed.

"Then I think the real question is what we do.  True or not if she is questioned by Taelon agents she might give them enough information that they'll be able to find out the truth of your abilities.  At the very least I think we need to suspend disbelief long enough to find out what is really going on here."

"You're right, Chief.  But, I still don't like it."  As they returned to Maiya's bedside Jim addressed her.  "Supposing for the moment that we believe you.  What are you planning on doing?"

Maiya hesitated for only a moment.  She was already committed to trusting these men.  She told them what she had overheard.  We need to identify the traitor and if possible learn just how they intend to 'deal with Doors'' so that we can warn the D.C. cell.

Identifying the traitor probably isn't the hard part.  I have the ability to contact the local Resistance leaders and the means to identify myself as trustworthy.  But, I'd like to have proof first.  If we can identify the man who seemed to be in charge and know what was being planned we might be able to get the information we need."

"With an accurate description we might be able to pull a small enough number of records that you could look through them and identify the correct man.  But that might tip off the Companions that we are snooping into the actions of their operative."  Jim said.

"We might be able to take advantage of that new computer you and the guys were giving me a hard time for buying.  A sketchy description will pull the records on hundreds of thousands of people.  A search that broad shouldn't set off any red flags.  Most people get a few dozen hits from these every day.  Then, since my computer has the capacity to store the entire search, we can narrow the search from the data already on my computer.  If we disconnect my computer from any kind of network first there would be no way for the Taelon's to know we have narrowed the search to their agent."  Blair interjected.

"O.K. you give us an accurate description of the man we're looking for.  Then we'll do what Blair suggested while you start contacting the people you need to talk to in the Resistance."  Jim told Maiya after a moment's thought.  "Here is our global codes if you need to contact us.  If not we'll contact you with the ID's you need to examine tomorrow."

"Agreed."

_End Chapter 2_


End file.
